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By Emma Draper - Local Democracy Reporter

The Tynwald Commissioner for Administration has ruled against two Douglas residents’ complaint about fortnightly bin collections because they were not able to show ‘injustice’ or ‘hardship’.

 

These were introduced last September by Douglas Council to encourage residents to recycle along with a garden waste collection service.

 

The residents, referred to as Mr and Mrs D in the report, claimed the council had ‘failed’ in its obligation to provide information about the change and wanted Angela Main Thompson to cease the collections.

 

Mr D’s complaints also stemmed from an issue with his neighbours and a pub, nearby to where he lives, using a private company to empty the bins which are stored on a shared back lane on a section the brewery owns.

 

In Ms Main Thompson’s report she says the pair were unaware of the council’s ‘long established’ kerbside recycling scheme and they felt services had been ‘cut’ with no ‘compensatory’ rate reduction.

 

Mr and Mrs D also said the changes were introduced ‘hurriedly’ and there was no consultation before it was implemented.

 

Douglas Council weren’t legally obliged to consult residents.

 

Mr D said he wasn’t on Facebook and Mrs D said despite having it she wouldn’t use it to look for council notifications.

 

However at the time of the report Mr D did have a social media presence and was using it to publicise his views.

 

Ms Main Thompson reported the council used other methods including radio announcements, press articles and local events to inform people of the change.

 

The council also says environmental health is looking at vermin levels.

 

Problems with the recycling boxes were raised by Ms Main Thompson to the council, who said it now stocks boxes with fixed lids, but these have less capacity than the ‘shower caps’, and recycling wheelie bins would increase the cost of segregating waste and risked ‘cross contamination’.

 

Ms Main Thompson concluded her report by refusing the complaint and saying there are ‘hard core’ individuals against recycling and alternative weekly collections.

 

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